Quincy mayor to host 75th reunion of the Koch Club on Flag Day weekend

QUINCY − No matter what school you went to, church you attended or neighborhood you lived in, those who spent their youth in Quincy in the 1950s and '60s likely had one thing in common: They played sports for the Koch Club.

This summer, all who played in the area's first open-enrollment league are invited to a reunion and summer cookout at Pageant Field. The reunion, scheduled for Sunday, June 11, will take place the day after the city's Flag Day parade − the oldest continuous Flag Day celebration in the country.

"There's a long history of youth programs centered around my dad giving people an opportunity," Mayor Thomas Koch said of the reunion. "Everybody played. He often said, 'There's enough pressure on these kids later in life. Let them enjoy being little.'"

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The Flag Day parade will step off at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 10, and will be followed by a flag-raising ceremony at Pageant Field at 8:15. The celebration will culminate with fireworks over Blacks Creek.

The parade will start on Coddington Street near Spear Street, head north on Hancock Street, turn onto Merrymount Parkway and wrap up at Vietnam Veterans Drive and Adams Field.

This year’s parade will feature 10 bands/drum corps, more than a dozen specialty units, public safety and veterans’ color guards, floats and more than 1,000 flag-waving kids.

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Musical performers will include the Windjammer Dixieland Band, the Boston Crusaders Senior Drum Corps, the Defenders Senior Drum Corps, the Branches Steel band, Uncle Sam’s Patriotic Band, the Northeast Italian Band, the Quincy/North Quincy marching band, the New Magnolia Jazz Band, the Old Colony Bag Pipe Band and the Roma Band.

“There’s no greater tradition in our city than the Flag Day parade,” Koch said in a statement. “It is an incredible community celebration of our flag and the values that it represents. It is the unofficial kickoff to summer and always the best day of the year."

At Pageant Field, a 50-foot-by-80-foot flag will be raised over the crowd to the tune of “You're a Grand Old Flag.” A ceremony recognizing the grand marshal − retiring Quincy Police Chief Paul Keenan − and the Richard and Simone Koch Award winner will follow.

Michelle Stenberg is this year's award winner. Stenberg began her career in 1996 and has worked with thousands of Quincy children through the Youth Kiddie Class and the Quincy Public Schools' Stars and Cares programs and as a coach in the Quincy Youth Soccer League. She is a board member and treasurer of Marie Droste Counseling Services.

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Koch Club reunion to bring players from across the city

The day after the parade, the city will host a party with barbecue, lawn games and giveaways for former Koch Club members from noon to 4 p.m.

The Koch Club was a youth sports, civic and charitable organization started in the 1950s by the current mayor’s father, Richard Koch. The club was the first "everybody plays" sports league in the city, Thomas Koch said, and started some of the first youth teams for girls. Richard Koch also started the Flag Day parade in the club's early years.

"If you grew up in Quincy in the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, you probably played in the Koch Club and you probably marched in the Flag Day parade," the mayor said last year. "The deal was, you carry a flag, you get a Hoodsie."

The Koch Club no longer runs youth sports leagues, but it still gives out an annual scholarship to two students at each high school and gives the Richard and Simone Koch Award to someone who has contributed to the development and success of young people in the city. Donations to the club's scholarship funds will be accepted at the reunion.

Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Everything to know about the Quincy Flag Day parade, Koch Club reunion